Synthetic

Pronunciation

• IPA: /sɪnˈθetɪk/

Origin

From Ancient Greek συνθετικός.

Full definition of synthetic

Adjective

1. Of, or relating to synthesis.
2. (chemistry) Produced by synthesis instead of being isolated from a natural source (but may be identical to a product so obtained).
• 2013-08-10, A new prescription, As the world's drug habit shows, governments are failing in their quest to monitor every London window-box and Andean hillside for banned plants. But even that Sisyphean task looks easy next to the fight against synthetic drugs. No sooner has a drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one.
3. Artificial, not genuine.
4. (grammar) Pertaining to the joining of bound morphemes in a word. Compare analytic.

Derived terms

• nucleosynthetic
• syntheticism

Noun

1. A synthetic compound.
• 2007, January 14, Elsa Brenner, Art House to Get a Campus, Only plastics and synthetics that cannot be recycled will end up in landfills, he said.